Knicks Close to First Finals Appearance This Century

All right, Rachel Nichols, there are thousands of happy fans in New York City on Thursday night as the New York Knicks have taken a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It took a historic comeback to win game one.

Not as much drama in game two.

The Knicks, Held the lead for much of the game, blew the game open in the 3rd quarter, survived a couple of late runs by the Cavs to, uh, hold off Cleveland to take a convincing game to win.

Now here we are.

The New York Knicks.

2 games away, 2 wins away from advancing to the first NBA Finals this century with the chance to win their first NBA championship in more than 50 years.

So, let's unpack this game.

Um, Start here.

Like we know what the story of game one was.

It was the historic comeback.

Jalen Brunson cooking, James Harden, pretty self-explanatory.

This game though, there's, there's a lot of layers to it.

Uh, what would you say is the, your main takeaway from game two?

What is the story of game two to you?

Um, I, I think it's twofold.

I've got an Xs and O takeaway, which is just that the Knicks do a really great job and you saw it with Jalen Brunson tonight.

Of taking, you know, that old-time expression, let's take what the defense gives us and figuring out a way to attack being attacked.

And, you know, Brunson obviously very early realized they're just going to put a ton of traffic around him, and he became this pinpoint assist man.

I think they said it was either his highest assist of the playoffs or his highest playoff assist ever.

I couldn't, I couldn't hear the exact stat, but Clearly more than he usually gets, and I thought that was really impressive.

And I thought, you know, Josh Hart stepping up when they kept left, leaving him open, especially after missing his first few shots.

Um, all of that shows an adaptiveness that I think is really interesting about this Knicks team, and they weren't showing consistently during the regular season and it has been consistent during these playoffs and very impressive.

And then my off the court take is just, you know, I've said this to you all season.

I am waiting for the Cleveland Cavaliers to show me that like cohesive heart, that buckle down, we are not gonna let this happen to us.

And I keep saying, I'm not saying they don't have it, but I am saying I haven't seen it enough.

And I know they won game 7.

I get it, but I, I'm waiting to see it on a sort of a more dramatic basis.

And I, I just sometimes, I wish I, I had a little more of that from them, but we'll see what happens at home.

They're a very good team at home.

You know, the Knicks' offense was, was humming in this game one.

You're right, Jalen Brunson, 7 to 16 from the floor, 19 points, but 14 assists.

That was how he impacted the game.

They, the Knicks or the Cavs, uh, they changed up the defense.

They weren't leaving Harden alone on an island.

They weren't leaving Donovan Mitchell alone on an island.

They would send passive double teams and Brunson, to his credit, found ways to carve those double teams up.

He was incredibly effective.

Uh, offensively 14 assists, 3 turnovers.

It's a great ratio, uh, plus 18 overall, uh, for Jalen Brunson.

Uh, Josh Hart to me was the, the biggest story of this game.

Josh Hart, I mean, A lot of similarities between what Josh Hart did in Game 2 and Isaiah Hartenstein did in Game 2 for Oklahoma City.

Uh, Isaiah Harden's team was a Josh Hart question though.

OK, not in the way they play.

I'm just gonna emphasize that again for the people, not their playing style or the way they play, but in terms of their position in the New York fan base is Josh Hart John Starks.

Uh, is he John Starks?

Is he the John Starks of this team?

I mean, John Stark's also, if my memory serves .

Also was kind of a whipping boy at times for that Knicks fan base and the Knicks just for some of the decisions you're saying that McHale Bridges is the John Starks.

Yeah, McBridges might be more Starks-esque.

I mean, I can see some similarities.

People love John Starks.

They do.

They love him.

Yeah, they, you know, there were times in retrospect, there were times in the 90s, yeah, that, you know, maybe they didn't love him quite so much that he, some of, some of his decision making, um, but no, he, he, you know, wildly popular now like the entire.

Like generations of Knicks fans sitting courtside watching these games is, is pretty impressive.

You don't see that really, uh, anywhere else, um, but I, I just thought Hart in the same way that Hartenstein just shook, shrugged off a non-impactful game one to have a hugely impactful game two.

Same thing with Josh Hart, 10 of 21 from the floor, 5-11.

From three-point range.

He had 7 assists.

He had 4 rebounds.

He was a plus 18 overall, 26 points, uh, total in this game.

Like that's, that's the kind of production you don't expect to get out of Josh Hart.

You expect to get good rebounding numbers, uh, maybe some high efficiency, uh, but you don't expect 511 from 3.

You don't expect, you know, that, that type of 7 assists, that type of output.

I mean, he was just outstanding.

Uh, all over the floor.

The Knicks as a team, 52% from the field, 36% from three-point range.

Like their offense to me was, was a big story.

I, I also, part of the story of this game though.

Was the number of kind of self-inflicted wounds that the Cavs had.

They were 9 of 35 from three-point range.

And, and I don't, I haven't had time to chart exactly what all these shots look like, but a lot of these shots looked like they were open looks.

Um, and some of their best shooters just weren't making shots.

Merrill, 0 of 7 from three-point range, rough.

Max Strus, 1 of 4 from three-point range.

Donovan Mitchell, 2 of 7 from three-point range.

Like they, uh, Jalen Tyson, another good three-point shooter, 0 of 3 from three-point range.

Like they could not get it going at all from the three-point line.

And if you're gonna shoot 35 threes, only make 25% of them.

You're gonna be in a tough spot.

So, uh, that was bad from Cleveland.

I also think going, you know, 22 of 32 from the free throw line is, is brutal.

That's 10 points.

You gave up 10 points, and a lot of those, I don't have them in front of me, but a lot of them are in the 4th quarter.

You know what's interesting about those foul shots?

They're free.

I've heard that somewhere.

Indeed, indeed, that is, uh, that is accurate.

But missing 10 free throws, that's, that's an absolute killer, uh, for this team, so.

Uh, credit, all credit goes to New York for what they did.

Brunson, Hart, uh, Bridges was solid once again.

Bridges, 9 of 12, ridiculous.

Like , it seems like forever ago we were talking about this guy's shot and how problematic it was.

20 points for him.

Uh, all 5 Knicks starters score at least 18 points, uh, no, sorry, at least, uh, 14 points, I should say.

Uh, just brilliant game for, uh, everybody, uh , in New York.

I, I don't.

Look, the, the, the James Harden was better in this game too, but I'm gonna continue to harp on the fact that James Harden just needs to have more of an impact.

Like he's just not.

He's not having an impact.

Game 7 against Detroit.

I know the numbers don't speak to everything he was doing in that game, but the shooting numbers were bad.

Game 1, the shooting numbers were bad.

Game 26 of 15, 6 rebounds, 2 assists.

18 points.

He was a team-low -22, uh, in this game.

Like just brutal.

Like, like Donovan Mitchell, we know he's dealing with something.

There's some kind of injury going on there.

He gutted it out for almost 39 minutes, uh, still scored 26 points.

James Harden in 32 minutes being a -22 is unacceptable.

That is unacceptable.

If you are the second star of this team, you cannot be -22 in a game like this.

Do you think, um, it's interesting.

Harden obviously playing into his playoff reputation, whether that's fair or not , um, Dale Bridges, you mentioned, you mentioned, his reputation obviously in New York has not been great since they acquired him, you know, there's been a lot of fan grumbling he wasn't worth the picks, that sort of thing.

Do you think the way he's played just even in these two games has been fantastic and certainly through the playoffs, do you think that's sort of showing Not only why they got him, but like how important it is to have someone like him.

Well, it takes the phrase 5 1st round picks off the table for a while.

Like, I mean, that was always, that's gonna be attached to McHale Bridges until the day his Knicks career is over.

Um, when you play like this on both ends of the floor, we're not talking about what you gave up to go and get him.

There's, there's no doubt about that.

So he was great, but I, I gotta, we gotta keep it on Harden though.

Like Harden, he just You want to be like, you, you push your way into these situations.

Like you're, you're forced your way on, out of, out of the Clippers and onto Cleveland.

You want to be in this situation and once again, you're laying an egg.

You're just laying an egg.

Like Donovan Mitchell cannot do it alone.

Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, they're good, but they're not the guy with the ball in their hands.

And I, I watched a lot of these hardened possessions on both ends of the floor.

Uh, Just to see the shots offensively at times seemed a bit rushed and defensively, You know, when Kenny Atkinson said that he, he's a good perimeter defender, what, what's, like when I, I texted a bunch of coaches about this, and, and the thing is like, well, I mean, if you, it's like if you squint and say he's a good post defender, then yeah, he's, he's a good isolation defender, perimeter, a good defender, but on the perimeter, he's not, he's not a good defender and It's a lot of times this game, he's just not moving his feet.

He's got, he does this thing where he keeps his hands down all the time and he's just kind of like letting guys go by him and just trying to avoid getting picked up, uh, called for a foul .

He, he's just, I mean, -22 speaks for itself.

That -22 is bad.

Like they need more from James Harden.

This series is not gonna come back to New York City if they don't get more from James Harden moving forward.

So it's interesting, he's turning 37 this summer, and I've often said like LeBron kind of in Steph in some ways is creating false expectations, right?

37 was not like, oh yeah, everyone plays till 37, even 10 years ago.

And I think some of these guys of this era.

Not that they don't know when to hang it up, but maybe sometimes they don't know when to hang it up.

And honestly, if the money is there and someone's willing to offer you a contract and you love playing basketball, I understand not doing that.

Um, and he played a ton of games this season again, but obviously, we know what happens in the playoffs.

He seems to run out of gas.

He's not able to do a lot of the things you need from him defensively, and sort of as the game has moved on, he hasn't changed that aspect of him and kind of adapted with it.

I, I just, you know, he said he forced his way out of LA and he wanted this.

The reason he forced his way out of LA is they told him, we don't know if we're gonna re-up your contract.

And like, you could get to the end of the season and not be with the team.

And he went for a situation where he felt he would have a longer runway with a different team.

Also, he's never missed the playoffs his entire career, which is kind of crazy, and wanted to be involved in the playoffs.

It, it's just one of those things where I get it, that, you know, certainly guys of this generation led by LeBron and seeing LeBron and the quality that he is playing at, think they can play until they're 40.

I'm not sure everyone can.

What do you think?

No, no, not everybody can.

Um, it, it's just hard for me to like reconcile like what Harden does in the regular season versus what he doesn't do in the playoffs.

And I'm looking at the 4th quarter box, 8 minutes, 6 points, 3 of those came in garbage time, so I don't really count that, uh, minus 9 in the 4th quarter, team low, -9.

It's, it's, it's unacceptable.

It's unacceptable.

And if he's gonna be playing like that where he's not bringing you value offensively, he's certainly not bringing you value defensively.

If you're Kenny Atkinson, and he didn't have many options in this game.

Like they, they played Schroder a lot of minutes in the 4th, almost 6 minutes.

Uh, Struce and Merrill couldn't buy a bucket, but You know, Kenny was asked after game one, did you think about benching James Harden?

He said , no, and he defended him, and that's exactly what you expect a coach to do.

I understand that.

But 8 minutes, 8 minutes minus 988 minutes minus 9, like that's.

He, he's just becoming unplayable at times for this team.

He just is.

Um, and, and that's, that, that's a huge problem.

Like that's, he is the number 2 guy.

Like he is who they got.

He is why they broke up this core 4.

They traded Darius Garland for him and say what you want about Garland.

Uh, but he has been part of this team's success over the last 4 or 5 years.

They, they made a big swing and right now, even though they're in the conference finals, like, I mean, they're, they're not in the conference finals in spite of Harden, but he didn't help them win game 7 against Detroit, and he's not helping them win these games now.

Like this is , Like these, these next two games are a referendum on James Harden.

They just are.

Like he's, he has got to step up and show that he's still worthy of being considered an All-Star player.

He's got to show he's worthy of being paid $30 million or whatever that guaranteed number is on his contract next season.

He's, he's got to play better, a lot better.

Yeah, no, I mean, and he's been in this position before, and when it's been late in the series, it hasn't happened some of the time.

When it's been earlier in the series like game 3 will be, he has stepped up at times and sort of put on the James Harden game and, and that in some ways extends a bad situation and people sort of feeling like, oh, see, it's fine.

Um, I, I'm just kind of curious watching this generation age, because I, I think that's what it is with Harden, and I just It, it's fascinating to see them just because of the advancements in physio, the advancements in science, you know, playing later, longer, because they are led by LeBron James, who is doing all of that at a much higher level than anyone else that in that age group.

And I, I just think you're gonna get more of these situations, former MVPs, guys who maybe had faults in their all-around game, but it wasn't something that was costing their team every time they were out on the floor.

And I'm, I'm curious to chart that with him and with a couple of the other guys in that age bracket.

So I think, I, I'm curious if that's part of it and if that is part of it.

You're not getting that back ever.

So, well, yeah, I mean, and that, that's, and, and, and that's a, a certainly a, a conversation for next season and should he be playing like 30 minutes per game as opposed to 34, 35.

You're trying to maximize him for the playoffs, but like here we are again.

I mean, I'm looking at some of these numbers like game 6 against Toronto, 5 of 14, Game 7 against Toronto, 3 of 9, game 7 against Detroit, 2 of 10, 0 of 6 from three-point range in that game.

Uh, through two games in this series, shooting 35.5% from the floor, 26.7% from three.

They're not gonna win games.

Like I'm, there, there's lots of reasons the Cavs are down 2 games to 0.

you know, everybody stunk in the final 7.5 minutes of game one.

there's no doubting that.

Uh, but this is the guy.

Like this is your second star .

Like this is the guy you're counting on.

They're, they're not winning anything unless he steps up and plays a lot better than this and I, I don't know.

I don't know if he's capable of it at this point.

Like he's had some decent games in the playoffs, but I'm looking at some of these games.

Like how many games did he shoot 40% or less from the field?

Like a lot of them, a lot of them to my point, when you say I don't know if he's capable of it, there was a time he was capable of it, and that's not right now what we're seeing.

So what does that tell you?

I mean, it tells me you've got to play somebody else, frankly, like you gotta give more minutes to Strus and Dean Wade and Uh, Sam Merrill, when he's making shots, I mean, if Merrill was making shots, he would have been a more viable alternative to, to Harden in in that game.

It's, this is, this is, to me, to me it's about him.

It's about him.

They swung big to go and get him.

Uh, they bet the house in some ways because Harden's future is kind of sort of tied to Donovan Mitchell's because, you know, you, you, you need Donovan Mitchell to sign a contract extension.

You want them to believe in what they're doing there in Cleveland.

Um, you know, would, would they be better off right now with Darius Garland?

Legitimate question.

Like, legitimate question.

Like Harden, Harden has helped him.

Is, is Darius Garland on the floor if he's on the roster, meaning he played down the stretch.

He played down the stretch in LA.

Like he was, I understand.

I'm just saying like you talk about his history in Cleveland.

Look, I, Darius Garland is a mystery is a mystery box to me right now because his time in Cleveland was riddled with him not being available.

And yet he is definitely a talent, definitely got the Clippers younger, which they desperately needed.

I, I'm very interested to see if it's, when he's with a different organization.

Look, some teams have better medical staffs, and I, I don't, I'm not at all besmirching the Cavs medical staff.

I'm just saying that different medical staffs approach things different ways.

I don't know what, what Darius Garland's gonna be in this next phase of his career, but if you look at his history with the Cavs, maybe he would have been on the court, maybe he wouldn't have.

I think the Darius Garland- Harden thing .

And then I, I know you're putting everything on James Harden.

I think Kenny Atkinson's getting outcoached in this series and certainly in game one and a little bit in game two.

I mean, I, it's a very Unquestionable thing, very questionable things for a veteran coach in game one.

Unquestionably, like, you know, not calling timeouts in the final 7+ minutes.

The team is so gassed and is playing basically a game 8 and You've got 2 timeouts, you're going to lose at the end of the quarridor.

Like that's what was so mystifying.

He's like, I like to save my timeouts when he was questioned about it.

You don't get to, you don't get to save them past when that buzzer goes.

I just, I thought that was, and, and not just that, but I understood the tactic of the way that they were going at Jalen Brunson, and that was successful for a little bit, but they didn't adjust when it stopped being as successful in the 4th quarter.

And then he did nothing to sort of save, you know, James Harden, who got just put on blast for the last stretch of that game.

And they, they talked about it.

The Knicks talked about it.

They said, yeah, we just looked for Harden and went for him.

I mean, it just, I thought that, again, I, I think Mike Brown, I mean, it's interesting just because we did have a coaching change in New York away from a coach who got this team further than they had been in 25 years, right?

The Game 6, the conference finals.

So Mike Brown is.

Under scrutiny just because, OK, is this guy really better?

Is he really gonna get them further?

And I think he has shown in these two games he's out coaching his opponent, head coach.

Yeah, I mean, he, he left Harden alone far too long.

I wrote about some of these stats, um, after game one.

Harden was the screener defender on 21 on-ball picks in the 4th quarter and overtime.

The Knicks got Harden to switch into 9 isolations during that stretch.

Jalen Brunson.

During that 4th quarter scored 15 points on 7 of 9 shooting.

So I mean ridiculous numbers.

And that, that is, that's on, that's 100% on Kenny Atkinson.

He deserves a pile of blame for that, but it, it kind of dovetails into the hard.

Overall conversation because, well, if, if you're, but, but if you're Kenny Atkinson going into Game 3, how short is your leash on James Harden?

Like how shorter than it's been the last two games, that's for sure.

I, I, I think that's, that's reasonable.

I mean he, he did, he played 32 minutes in game two, which is actually relatively low for Harden and went 42 in the overtime game in game one.

That's actually the lowest he's played.

Yeah, it's the lowest he's played these playoffs.

Game one played 33 minutes against Toronto, so that's the, that's a playoff low, uh.

But you know, if other guys are making shots and Harden's not playing defense, I think you gotta keep those guys out there.

I think the leash has to be, that's the adjustment you gotta make.

I look, I don't think the series is over.

I, I don't like the Cavs.

I mean, I, I fully expect the Cavs to win one if not two games at home.

I mean, they're a good home team and they're a good team, so they're going to, but even, even toward that, Kenny Atkinson and RJ mentioned it on the broadcast, but I was sort of screaming at the TV at the same time.

How could you not pull your guys who are clearly tired and every other night, and one of them is hurt and like, how do you not pull them when you're 20 down at the end, you know, what is it 3 minutes, 2 minutes in the 4th quarter, dude, like, that is, again, it's just sort of like, why this is an experienced coach.

Why are you making sort of these decisions that anyone off the street could tell you.

is not the good way to go.

And I was surprised by Lisa Salter's report after halftime, because, you know, the guys mentioned on the broadcast throughout, like Donovan Mitchell doesn't look as explosive, he's slow to get to some of his spots, and Lisa asked Kenny about that at halftime, and Lisa reported that he told her, oh, I noticed that too, but he didn't say anything to me.

I mean, I, I think that's, that's like, I don't, I think he knows exactly what's going on with Donovan Mitchell.

I get it.

You don't talk to, I mean, uh, it certainly could be smoke and not wanting to give a Donovan Mitchell report, but like to acknowledge whether it's you're trying to obstate or not, like, oh, I didn't talk to my star player at halftime about the fact that he was obviously having physical trouble out there.

Like, even if you did and you're just trying to hide it, that's not the way you say it publicly.

It doesn't make you sound good as a coach.

Not, not, not great messaging.

I do think that, I do think that he's, they're on the same page with whatever's going on on they are, but again, like, it's just like I'm sure he's not walking by Donovan's locker like I didn't see you, I don't see, I don't see you stretching that groin, uh.

You know, uh, look, that looms large over the rest of the series.

Um, I didn't, uh, look, Mitchell was obviously impacted by some kind of lower leg injury.

Um, it was enough for him to play 30 some odd would say 38 minutes, and he did start to turn it on down the stretch.

He started to get more comfortable.

I thought playing down the stretch.

Maybe that carries over into game three, but just like they can't succeed without James Harden playing better, they can't succeed without Mitchell.

Carrying them offensively, that's what he's gonna do.

But I, I think they're in this, like, I mean, they, by all rights, they should be 1-1.

They should not have gagged away that game one.

Even in the fourth quarter, like they gave themselves a chance down the stretch.

It was a 7-point game with like 5.5, 6 minutes left.

They were in the bonus.

Uh, they were playing good basketball for stretches during this game.

So they've got a chance here, I think, of, of, they still got a chance to get back in the series.

Just, but that to your point, they have, they gave themselves a chance.

They were 7 down with 56 minutes to go.

A team with a lot of heart takes that, bites onto it, and just chomps away.

A team that is leading by as much as they were leading in the 4th quarter of game one, absolutely does not let another team get back in.

And I'm just waiting to see that sort of.

Borderline stand in a, in a tough position, not when it's easy, but when it's hard from this Cavaliers team at this level.

I'm, I'm sure they've done it in regular season games.

I know they've won two game sevens, but you could argue those were game 7.

They shouldn't have been in, frankly.

And I, I just, I don't know, this, I wanna, I'm desperate to see it.

I, I love the way Donovan Mitchell plays.

I've always really liked him as a player.

I'm interested in Harden's career and just sort of whether he has this ability to punch at this point.

Um, I think that some of the kids on that team are great.

I, I just, so I want to see it.

Show me, show me.